Tarpon Springs

We have now been in Tarpon Springs for nearly a week due to the marina's offer of stay five days get two days free. We have made the most of our time here by seeing gardens, festivals, boat yards, churches and wildlife sanctuaries.
The week started by us visiting the Endeavour (the make of our boat) Boat Yard.

We were given a tour and shown two boats in the very early process of being built. We were then taken to another yard and shown a 48 foot Endeavour being serviced. The boat was from Washington State and was due to be shipped home the week after we saw her. Boy, it was so much bigger than ours. She had 3 bedrooms, 2 good size bathrooms, two TVs and room on the front for a power boat and a motor cycle on the back. However, I liked our boat better as it was more cosy, much to Gary's surprise and relief!!

After touring the boat yards we visited the Florida Botanical Gardens. They were very nice and I took many photos.

This is a photo of a bare plumeria (frangipani) tree. I have had one at home in Maryland for 7 years and for 7 years this is all it has looked like. If it was to flower, it would have a really lovely perfume. I was given another cutting last week and now have it in a plant pot on the boat. Let us hope this one is more productive than the one in Pasadena.

                          I cannot have a blog without a bird picture or two!!

Or a butterfly photo!!

This was a lovely photo of a hidden Lily. I guess it is hidden!!

Gary and I got out our bicycles to find mine had a tyre flatter than a pancake. Thus, we had to push our bikes to down town Tarpon Springs to have the puncture fixed. We passed a house with huge Elkhorns hanging from the tree. They must have weighed many, many pounds.

On our journey into town we passed this yard with decorated bicycles. We are not sure why they were decorated but they did look nice. The bicycle nearest to the camera has been decorated with many sponges.
Whilst Gary pushed my bike to be fixed, I continued onto the city park. There was a very nice war memorial and lake.

I was also entertained by this lovely dog and her owner. I do not remember the dog's name but her owner said she had been on the local TV and was going to be in a talent show in May. The owner had her roll, kiss me, go through and around his legs, do high 5s and not touch her treat until the owner said the number 3 (after many other numbers). She was a delight to watch.

I fell in love with this house over looking the lake. It was for sale but I do not know how much for. If I had David's I-Phone, I could have found out.

When the bike tyre was fixed we went to visit the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas.The church is patterned after St Sophia's in Istanbul. The church features 23 unique stained glass windows, three massive Czechoslovakian glass chandeliers and 60 tons of Greek marble. It was quite impressive.

Another day we went to Dunedin (the old name for Edinburgh) to attend their Highland Games. Pipe bands came from as far away as Texas and Georgia. We also saw "throwing the caper" (tossing the caber) as Gary called it, Woolpack Tossing, hammer throwing and Scottish/Irish dancing. We sat and watched/listened to Scottish and Scottish/Native American Music which was so relaxing, from under the shade of a large Live Oak tree covered in Spanish Moss.

 You can just see the woolpack he has launched up into the air from his pitchfork. It weighed 28lbs.

                            It was the ladies' turn to "throw the caper"!!!

                         Hmmm, now what do they wear under their kilts????
This young man below did not have the look of a traditional Scots man!!

We (the crowd) were invited to partake of country dancing on the stage. Gary and I decided not to make fools of ourselves so watched the participants. I just loved these two old ladies. They did not need lessons or directions so must have partaken in country dancing before. They were so cute together I just had to take their photos.

On one of the side shows was a lady making chain mail. She gave us a demonstration and then donned what she had worked on - a balaclava.

Our final day out with the hired car was to Honeymoon Island just outside of Dunedin. The area proved to be very popular as it took us 30 mins to get onto the island in very slow moving traffic. We had planned on going to the beach and soaking up a few rays but decided to visit the Nature Trail first. I just LOVE visiting wildlife so was in hog heaven. I saw Gopher Tortoises, armadillos, ospreys, bald eagles, golden eagles and owls.

 This osprey is doing something I have never seen them do before - drying its wings.

There are two bald eagles in the above photo. One is hidden by the pine tree to the left of the nest. I sat for 15 mins hoping both birds would move but they didn't, so I did!!.

I think this is a Golden Eagle nest, buy I am not sure.

I just love owls as my Mum and Dad know. I was thrilled to see this one in the wild. There were, in fact two owls in the same tree. This was the better of my photos as the tree was not close by.
I also took a couple of photos that I liked:

                        I tried to have the osprey's nest haloed by the sun.

                            I liked the moon underneath the bird's nest.
Finally, we drove through another park (I do not remember its name). It had a lake and some nice reflections so dear Gary halts the car for me to hop out and take some photos.

We had a lovely sunset two nights ago. This photo was taken from the marina where we have the boat moored.

I shall finish with a humerous photo. This sign was in a bar window.

Hmmm, must have been run and attended by men!!!



Kingston Rover Loop Map